Nothing tops off a holiday like a nice slice of cheese. The Star Wars Holiday Special, in case you missed the briefing, aired for the first and only legitimate time on November 17, 1978. It was the very first filmed Star Wars spin-off and introduced to the Star Wars mythos Boba Fett, the planet of the Wookies, and Life Day. It also introduced to the Star Wars universe characters played by Art Carney, Harvey Korman, and Beatrice Arthur — all sitcom stars of the era. In case you haven’t figured it out, it was a mystically horrific comedy/musical that was, if not the worst thing ever associated with Star Wars, then at least the most ludicrously inappropriate.

Although officially disowned by Lucasfilm (George Lucas was said to be “unhappy” with the program) the show has had a long cult life as swapped video tapes and now digital files. The entire special is up on YouTube, and as you cram one last sip of eggnog and one last bite of stollen into your distended belly, The Star Wars Holiday Special provides just the antacid that you desperately need.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

I thought this was the coolest thing when I watched it as a kid. I guess I blocked out the bad parts, or just didn’t notice them as a kid.

So a few months ago, I tried to watch it. The first segment on Yahoo had the Wookies yapping like terriers. No subtitles. No one to translate. But we could figure out that Chewbacca’s father liked his secret 3-D porn.

So then I clicked on the Boba Fett cartoon. Horrible animation, made worse by the analog signal.

Then I “fast forwarded” to the ending. Where Carrie Fisher sings the Life Day song. My ears and eyeballs bled simultaneously.

The only other TV show as bad as this? The pilot episode of the Brady Bunch Variety Show, which is canon (shudder) and which Nickolodeon showed one year as a New Year’s special, after showing the top television episodes of all time (via Nick At Nite). Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad, if I hadn’t watch “Chuckles Bites The Dust” right before.

Now the Paul Lynde Halloween Special… that’s cheesy fun. As are the NBC JLA specials from Hanna-Barbera, available via the Warner Brothers Archive…

Torsten, I’m convinced our young minds being so blown by the concept of an original Star Wars show on TV with the actual stars of the movie happening, we were forgiving of a lot of sins. I seem to remember watching the last 90 minutes on a 9″ black & white portable set because my Dad gave up and switched the color set during the first part with Chewie’s family.